Orange-Honey Glazed Chicken

I use Yummy Soup; a Mac-based recipe management program. It works very well and got even better recently with the ability to easily import recipes on the web.
The program came with some recipes already imported and this was one of them. I was a bit concerned with idea of reducing glaze; but it wasn’t hard at all. The glaze thickened up nicely after coming out of the oven and had great flavor.
I made half of the recipe and it maybe could have used a bit more glaze. But I don’t think you could really have too much. 🙂
The hardest part was remembering to keep my bare hand off the handle of the skillet! There are several references to that in the recipe and I can see why.

Attribution: Cooks Illustrated

 Ingredients:

1 ½ cups Orange Juice Plus An Additional 2 Tablespoons
â…“ cup Light Corn Syrup
3 Tbsp Honey
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar
â…› tsp Red Pepper Flakes
Table Salt And Ground Black Pepper
½ cup All-Purpose Flour
4 Chicken Breast Halves With Ribs & Skin
2 tsp Vegetable Oil
1 medium Shallot, minced (about 3 tablespoons)

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk 1 ½ cups orange juice, corn syrup, honey, mustard, vinegar, pepper flakes, ⅛ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper together in medium bowl.

2. Remote ribs and excess fat from breasts. Trim off any extra overhanging skin as well. Place flour in pie plate, then season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Working with one chicken breast at a time, coat chicken with flour, patting off excess.

3. Heat oil in ovenproof 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add chicken breasts skin-side down; cook until well browned and most of fat has rendered from skin, 8 to 14 minutes. (If after 3 minutes you don’t hear definite sizzling, increase heat to medium-high. If after 6 minutes chicken is darker than lightly browned, reduce heat slightly.) Turn chicken and lightly brown other side, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to plate.

4. Pour off all but 1 teaspoon fat from pan. Add shallot and cook until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Increase heat to high and add orange juice mixture. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until syrupy and reduced to 1 cup (heatproof spatula should leave slight trail when dragged through glaze), 6 to 10 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and tilt to one side so glaze pools in corner of pan. Using tongs, roll each chicken breast in pooled glaze to coat evenly and place skin-side down in skillet.

5. Transfer skillet to oven and bake chicken until thickest part of breasts registers 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 25 to 30 minutes, turning chicken skin-side up halfway through cooking. Transfer chicken to platter and let rest 5 minutes. Return skillet to high heat (be careful-handle will be very hot) and cook glaze, stirring constantly, until thick and syrupy (heatproof spatula should leave wide trail when dragged through glaze), about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons orange juice. Spoon 1 teaspoon glaze over each breast and serve, passing remaining glaze at table.

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